Tuesday, April 26, 2011

on dining


We have a dining room now. I mean, we had one before, on Pine Street (it was the only place to eat at in the house), but now we have a breakfast area, an island with bar stools, and the dining room.

Needless to say, this leaves us with more than enough options in regards to where we eat as a family.

Breakfast is around the island. In the mornings I am at my "multi-tasking best". Things are cooking, coffee brewing, juice, milk, eggs, oatmeal flying everywhere...all on top of packing up to four lunches. So, you can imagine what it looks like after everyone gets out the door...something like my fridge threw up all over the kitchen. Breakfast is crazy, loud, messy, and I love it.

Lunch is easy going. Sometimes I even forget about it. Lunch is quiet..usually just me and Zibby. Lunch is peaceful, simple, and more often than not...easy to clean up.

Then there's dinner.

We have a table off the kitchen that we usually sit at. And it works out fine. But, I kept looking at the poor lonely dining room. Up until just a week ago, we had only eaten in it a handful of times. It seemed so sad and wasteful not be eating together in such a pretty room. A room made for one purpose...sitting down and enjoying a meal together.

So, now my goal is to have dinner in the dining room. We have done this twice now, and I have to say we seemed to linger a bit longer. We relaxed, well, at least the Mommy and Daddy did.

Dinner is not perfect around here. Last night alone, all three kids ended up "reflecting" in their rooms for being "ill-mannered." The table was still a disaster, along with the floor...but that's what it's all for anyway.

Aaron and I were just talking about how un-social our society is becoming. If we can raise our kids to be engaging, concerned, and compassionate adults, I think it might start around the dining room table together.

As you can see from the picture above...we have a long way to go.


3 comments:

  1. "reflecting in their rooms"....lol love it Jenn!!!

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  2. I am pretty sure either you or Aaron must have crop dusted this room to get such reactions! :)

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  3. I noticed that you didn't put any drinks on the table. WISE MOVE!

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